Lamp FAQ

Rationale

Why??

Why not?

No, really. Why are you doing this?

Because I like the power of the Unix core and the intuitiveness of the Mac interface, and I'm not willing to compromise on either.

Why don't you just use Mac OS X?

I do. But there are millions of Macs that can't run Mac OS X (of which I own a few) and more that can run OS X, but not the latest version and not with acceptable performance.

Why not upgrade all your machines?

Because I'm really not all that happy with Mac OS X anyway. While in many ways it's more clever than Mac OS 9, and more sexy, to me it's a step away from the elegance of the traditional Mac OS, in that I find bloat to be inelegant. Bloat occurs in the interface -- screen elements are visually larger and shaded such that 16-bit color looks poor and 8-bit is simply unusable -- and in memory usage. I had the opportunity to use NeXTstep in the early nineties, and then as now, RAM was crucial to good performance -- it would run in 8MB, but if you had 16MB then it was really snappy. In Mac OS 9, I couldn't even fill my 320MB except by playing Diablo II in hi-res mode. In OS X I have to quit applications that I'm not using, especially Classic.

You're using Classic??

I use ToolServer to run the CodeWarrior tools.

I happen to know you have CodeWarrior Pro 8, which has Mach-O tools. Why don't you install that?

I intend to, but it doesn't support 68K development.

You're supporting 68K??

One of my products includes code resources. Trust me on this one.

Okay. How about Mac06?

It looks interesting, but the development tools and networking are payware and the whole thing is closed source, so you can't modify it. I also note that it has technical limitations due to the Mac OS process model: In addition to the usual overhead of launching a Mac process, Mac06 has to copy a program when it launches a second (or subsequent) instance of it, since only one process can be run per Mac application file.

Doesn't Genie run afoul of the same limitations in Mac OS as Mac06?

This question belongs in the Design section, not here in Rationale. Ask me there.

Fair enough. Since you like open source, why not use Linux?

I do. :-) I run Debian on several Macs. I love Linux, but I'm not ready to call it home yet.

That's fine, but aren't you reinventing the wheel? Wouldn't this be effort better spent elsewhere?

Why do martial artists have fights with imaginary foes (forms) or with people who are not their enemies (sparring)? Training. Study. Practice. Because if they don't, they won't have a chance when they are fighting enemies.

Every programmer should have projects of his own devising to work on, a venue for research and experimentation. Independent study contributes to clearer thinking, more advanced understanding, and ultimately, to mastery. And it allows room for mistakes that don't cost someone a lot of money.

Don't you realize that in 2038 the Mac's clock will overflow and you'll have to scrap the whole thing anyway? Why won't you yield to the inevitable? Why is it that you persist?

Because I choose to.